Recomended Watching

"There are those in our own country too who today speak of the 'protection of country' -- of 'survival.' A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient -- to look the other way.

Well, the answer to that is "survival as what?" A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult!

Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, in our decision, this is what we stand for: justice, truth, and the value of a single human being."
_____________________________________________
Does that sound like rhetoric you may have heard during the recent political season? Yeah, I thought so, too. It's actually a monologue delivered by Spencer Tracy near the end of Judgment at Nuremberg, a 1961 film by Stanley Kramer detailing a fictionalized version of the Nuremberg Trials (the Trials of Nazi War Criminals after WWII).

I was flipping channels last night and caught the start of the flick. I'd never seen it before. I like to watch the old grainys sometimes, and I thought I'd give this one a try. I wasn't sure if I'd stay the whole time, because ye olde Tivo told me it was 3 hours and ten minutes long--quite the commitment for a black & white. I knew it was a courtroom drama, a genre I enjoy...so I settled in at the start--and was simply riveted.

The film is a fictionalized trial of Four Judges who helped carry out Hitler's extermination orders during the Third Reich. Remarkably, it raises and discusses issues regarding the role of the judiciary in a way that we still talk about in campaigns today--is it a judge's role to idly enforce the law's passed by the judiciary or to take a more "active" role in legislating? What does a judge do when faced with immoral orders from the legislative branch? Is it enough to say "I was just doing my job" when charged with horrific tasks? Most would say no, but the question isn't really that easy.

Obviously, the role of judges in Nazi Germany was a difficult one--and perhaps the most extreme example of the discussion between a so called active and passive judiciary. In the film, as at the real trials, the judges were held "responsible" for not taking it upon themselves to disobey the law of their country. It's hard not to agree--under the circumstances--with the verdicts handed down. As the debate goes on even today in this Country over whether judges should merely enforce the laws given to them this film makes a powerful argument against taking a hard and fast rule on this subject.

I also found it unbelivable that in 1961 they filmmakers got away with using actual footage of the concentration camps...the gruelling images are not unlike those you've seen in more modern documentations of the era like Schiendler's List. It caught me off guard, but also made the experience of the film more compelling and moving. Unlike most films of that era, it felt for the most part like I was watching a movie that could have been made today. (Except for a couple of points where they had the old, "he's driving in a car on a soundstage while they run pictures of Germany behind 'em" effect).

The cast is simply ridiculous. There's a lot of good acting happening. A sense that this is one of those films in the era when actors were starting the transposition from matinee idol expounding to really getting into their characters. Maximilian Schell won an Academy Award (rightfully so) as the defense counsel for the accused. Spencer Tracy is perfect casting as the lead judge of the tribunal. Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, a somewhat sad Judy Garland, and yes, a very young William Shatner (even keeping his emoting in check) make up the kind of cast you couldn't afford to put in one flick today.

If you happen to be flipping channels on a Sunday night and run across this one--stick around, it's an amazing film.